Folding handrail



Aug. 17, 1937. v. wlLLouGHBY I FoLDING HANDRAIL Filed Jan. 21, 1937 INVENTOR zyw w... W m ,W CY WB Patented Aug. 17, 1937 UNITED sTTs ATENT OFFICE American Car and Foundry Company, New

York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application January 21, 1937, Serial No. 121,455

6 Claims.

This invention relates to folding rails in general and in particular to folding hand rails intended for use in connection with railway cars.

. :Inrprior car construction in which hand rails v were necessary they have generally been of the type which are vertically slidable within stake pockets carried by the side of the car or of the type which could be collapsed with respect to the underframe. With all types of stakes and hand rails previously used the looking device for maintaining them in the operative position have been extremely cumbersome and hard to operate. It'is an object, therefore, of the invention to provide a hand rail of the folding type in which the uprights or stakes may be readily locked in the upright position.

Another object of the invention is the. provision of a lock for an upright which will automatically look the upright in a substantially Vertical posi- JOn.

A further object of the invention is the pro- ,vision of a looking means for the uprights of a folding hand rail which may be adjusted to various positions thus compensating for inequalities of the component parts.

These and further objects of the invention will be 'apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a partial side View of a flat car showing the improved hand rail applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is an end view of one-half the car showing the hand rail in raised and lowered position;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view showing the improved hinging and looking member for the rail uprights;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged front view of the device shown in Fig. 3, and

Figs. 5, 6, and '7 are seotional views taken on lines 5-5, 6-6 and 'l-l respectively of Fig. 3 and showing details of the looking member and hinge casting.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, it is seen that the folding hand rail A is formed in a plurality of separable sections and applied to a railway car B, which in the instance shown carries a cargo of tanks C. Each section of the rail comprises at least two uprights or posts 2 joined together by horizontally disposed connecting bars 4 and the joint 6 between sections is of any well known type permitting ready separation. Each upright post or stake is of tubular formation and has a hinge plug 8 driven in the lower end thereof to receive hinge pin IO locked in the post by rvet or other means |2. Prior to the fastening (cl. -457) I of the hinge pin in position it is passed through openings 14 formed in spaced parallel walls |6 of stake or post pocket casting |8. The stake or post pocket casting is of general Y cross section having a leg 26 adapted to be secured to a bracket or other means forming part of the car as shown in Fig. 3 and with spaoed diverging arms 22, the outer ends of which are curved outwardly as at 24 to assist in guiding the post into position. These diverging arms merge to form the parallel upright walls lt previously mentioned. The arms 22 form between them a substantially semi-circular recess and these arms are extended above the leg 29, thus forming a semi-circular projection 26 which is tapered upwardly slightly as at 21.

In order to retain the stake in its upright position a sliding looking ring 28 is provided having a tubular portion 3B surrounding the tubular stake and a bell-shaped lower portion 32 adapted to fit over the tapered projeotion 26 of the stake casting. The looking ring is formed with an ear 34 to which one end of chain 36 is secured, the other end being secured to a jointed safety locking pin 38. The looking pin is of novel construction and has its shank '3D eccentrically arranged with respect to the head portion 42'which is of polygonal form. The shank is provided with a pivoted end portion 44 which will prevent aocidental removal of the pin from its position in openings 46 of the stake or post. The sliding looking ring is formed with a projecting lug 138 which provides bearing surfacefor the polygonal head of the looking pin, thus insuring full engagement between the head and looking ring at all times. In order that the projection may always be locked in position to be engaged by the looking pin, the bell-shaped portion of the locking ring is formed with shoulders 50 (Fig. 5) which prevent any rotation of the ring.

The operation of the device will be as follows and assuming the parts to be in the position as shown in Figs. 3 and 4: The portion 44 of the looking pin is raised into alignment with the shank 40 after which the looking pin may be removed and the looking ring 28 slid upwardly along the stake, thus freeing the stake Aand permitting its rotation outwardly and downwardly about hinge pin IO. In returning the stake from its lowered position to its upright locked position it is only necessary that the stake be rotated about the pin Ill until such time as the stake contacts with the back semi-circular portion of the stake pocket casting, after which the looking ring may be lowered in its proper position thus effectively holding the stake in its upright position. The transversely extending safety looking pin is then inserted through the opening in the stake and the proper shoulder of the polygonal head ohosen which will contact with the upper surface of projeoting lug 48. It is thus seen that the pocket casting and sliding looking ring may be rough castings, since the ecoentric safety looking pin will take care of considerable inequalities in the parts which would permit different degrees of engagement between the looking ring and the pocket casting.

While the invention has been described and disclosed as applied to a hand rail, it is, of course, obvious that it is equally applicable to individual stakes or even folding gates and it is also obvious that various modifications and rearrangements of parts may be made but all such modifioations and rearrangements of parts are contemplated as fall within the scope of the following olaims.

What is claimed is:

1. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crosssection having the leg thereof secured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed outwardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, a stake hinged to the lower portion of said arms and fcldable into said recess, and a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and enga'geable over the upper portion of the diverging arms to look the stake in the recess.

2. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crosssection having the leg thereof seoured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed outwardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, a stake hinged to the lower portion of said arms and foldable into said recess, a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and engageable over the upper portion of the diverging arms to look the stake in the recess, and a safety looking pin engaging the stake above the looking ring to retain the ring in stake looking position.

3. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crosssection having the leg thereof secured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed outwardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, a stake hinged to the lower portion of said arms and foldable into said recess, a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and engageable over the upper portion of the diverging arms to lock the stake in the recess, and a safety looking pin having a shank traversing the stake above the looking ring, said pin having a polygonal head eocentrioally arranged on the shank and rotatable 'to the proper position whereby a surface of the head engages the looking ring to retain the ring in stake looking position.

4. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crosssection having the leg thereof seoured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed outwardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, said diverging arms being formed with upper and lower projeotions, a stake hinged between the lower projeotions and foldable into said recess, and a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and engageable over the upper projeotions to thereby look the stake in the recess.

5. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crossseotion having the leg thereof secured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed out- Wardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, said diverging arms being formed with upper and lower projections, a stake hinged between the lower projections and foldable into said recess, a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and engageable over the upper projections to thereby lock the stake in the recess, and a Safety looking pin having a shank engaging the stake and an eocentrically positioned polygonal head engageable with the looking ring torretain the looking pin in various stake looking positions.

6. A folding hand rail for rail cars comprising, a stake pocket casting formed of general Y crosssection having the leg thereof seoured to the car structure and the diverging arms directed outwardly to form a stake reoeiving recess, said diverging arms being formed with upper and lower projections, a stake hinged between the lower projections and foldable into said recess, a sliding looking ring carried by the stake and engageable over the upper projeotions to thereby lock the stake in the recess, and a safety looking pin having a shank engaging the stake and an eccentrically positioned head engageable with the looking ring to retain the looking ring in stake looking position, said head being of polygonal form and prov'iding a plurality of surfaces separately engageable with the looking ring to thereby oompensate for inequalities in the size of the looking ring and projections.

VICTOR WILLOUGHBY. 

